A Few Danish Traditions! (January 18, 2011)

My host mother is wonderful, she loves to talk and she loves to share Danish traditions and histories with me that I feel like I would be completely missing out on if I had chosen another living option. While I have had my anxieties about meeting people and making friends here- because some students all live together in large groups in apartment building and have it much easier to meet and hang out- after evenings like this one, I know I made the right decision. I'm going to share with you all some of the traditions and events that I have learned about over the dinner table or watching the news (in Danish) with Lisbeth and Steen.

• The Queen's Birthday! Lisbeth actually shares her birthday with the Queen and as she jokes, she is much more polite about it. What she means, is that while the Queen greats the city on her birthday by coming onto the balcony and waving at the crowd, she never invites anyone in! Lisbeth apparently, would not only wave to the crowds outside gathering for her birthday, but she would certainly invite them in.
• Another traditional Danish meal: PORK ROAST. Tonight for Mathias' birthday meal he prepared a traditional Danish pork roast. Dad- challenge! The Danish prepare their pork so that the skin is extremely crispy (AND DELICIOUS) while the rest is cooked and juicy. It is amazing. Apparently, Lisbeth's sister is the master at pork roast and she can cook it so the skin is sooo crispy and has tons of big bubbles, which I know must sound awful to many of you- especially the vegetarians, but hoooly shit is it good. Also with the meal, we had potatoes and gravy- which has become a common side dish in our dinners, and red cabbage. I loooved the red cabbage. I believe it was pickled? it's kind of sour, and was cooked with red wine. So good. All of it was amazing. And Lisbeth kept teasing Mathias that it wasn't all that well done, so I can only imagine a master Danish chef with these recipes.
• Anniversaries! This is a weird one. But awesome. So, Danish wedding anniversaries are a big, big deal in the community and with friends. Instead of the married couple simply going to out to dinner either alone or with their family, friends of the Danish couple whose wedding anniversary it is organize a special gathering the morning of. The morning begins with the married couple being woken up by music in the street. For Lisbeth and Steen's 25th anniversary, I believe, this was done by a BAGPIPE player that their son Christian organized! Can you imagine? Bagpipes early in the morning?? Other friends or relatives may organize another instrument player or singers, or different kinds of music to wake up the couple. Then, once the couple is wake bright and early, they great the massive amount of people who have come to celebrate the anniversary with a breakfast provided by the couple. Apparently 80 people may show up. EVERYONE goes. Also, their doorway is decorated so that the whole street knows- in case they missed the loud music and huge crowd early in the morning. I thought this was such a neat tradition.
  
• Speaking of anniversaries, Happy 90th Anniversary Today to the Sausage/Hot Dog Stands in Copenhagen! Everywhere you go on the streets they have the stands, like in NYC, but obviously with a Danish twist and today was the 90th anniversary for these stands as I learned while watching the news. I have yet to try one of these, but I surely will and will report back.

I'm sure I have learned more, but these are the ones that are fresh on my mind right now.